Seoul 1988 - Quick hits

The boxer Eduard Paululum was justly proud, being the first athlete from Vanuatu to appear at the Olympic Games. But the morning of the bout, instead of eating after the weigh-in, the bantamweight contender decided to have a hearty breakfast beforehand. Unfortunately, he was too heavy at the weigh-in to be considered for the contest and the officials had no choice but to disqualify him.

Sit-in

Bad loser South Korea's Byun Jong-il staged a 67 minute sit-in protest after his boxing defeat to Bulgaria's Alexander Hristov. Byun felt he had been cheated by New Zealand referee Keith Walker, who was beaten up by security guards later, having docked him a point for use of the head.

Civil asylum

Born Naim Suleymanov in Bulgaria, renamed Shalamanov in 1985, the ethnic Turk Naim Suleymanoglu won the first of his three weightlifting golds in Turkey's colours. The changing of his name, nationality and civil status was a political decision which was taken by Sulemanoglu himself after he sought political asylum. He was subsequently banned from the sport for a year and the Turkish government had to hand over a sum of $1m dollars to Bulgaria before he could compete again.

Close contests

In the clay-pigeon shooting event, the Soviet Unions' Dmytro Monakov and Czechoslovakia's Miroslav Bednarik were involved in one of the most exciting finals ever. In the semi-finals they gave notice of their almost inseparable ability when they both finished tied on 197 points. In the final, again, both men finished tied (222). Extra-time with sudden-death was finally needed to separate the two men and Monakov won the final with his eighth shot.

In her Grand Slam winning year Steffi Graff added an Olympic gold to her wins at the Australian Open, Roland Garros, Wimbledon and the US Open. The win marked the return of tennis to the Games after a 64-year absence.